Stapleton Cotton

Stapleton Cotton (14 November 1773-21 November 1865) was the Governor of Barbados from 1817 to 1820 and a general of Great Britain during the French Revolutionary Wars, the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, the Robert Emmet Uprising, and the Napoleonic Wars.

Biography
Stapleton Cotton was born in Llweni Hall in Denbighshire, Wales. He joined the British Army at the age of 17 in 1790 and fought in the French Revolutionary Wars' Flanders campaign, including the Battle of Tourcoing in 1794. In 1796 his regiment was sent to India and he fought Mysore during the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, and in 1803 he put down Robert Emmet's rebellion in Ireland. In November 1805 he was made the commander of a brigade of cavalry at Weymouth and fought in the Peninsular War at the Battle of Bussaco, Battle of Sabugal, Battle of Fuentes de Onoro, and Battle of Salamanca. At war's end he reached Toulouse in 1814.

During the Hundred Days of 1815, Cotton served in the occupation forces after the Battle of Waterloo, as the Earl of Uxbridge had been given command of the British cavalry. He served as the Governor of Barbados from 1817 to 1820.